MALAYSIA * Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling party split a by-election with Muslim fundamentalists who want to declare Malaysia a hard-line Islamic state. The archrivals were contesting the state assembly and national Parliament seats that came open after the death last month of Fadzil Noor, leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS. The fundamentalists retained the assembly seat and built an early, 2,000-vote lead for the parliamentary seat.

When this country began issuing ID cards to women in November, the hard-liners were quick to object. Women with picture IDs showing their faces unveiled? And what if someone superimposed copies of the photos on nude bodies and circulated them as pornography? "Whoever gets a card for his women will be acting like a pimp," said a leaflet issued by the fundamentalists. Still, less than six months later thousands of Saudi women are carrying their own IDs, rather than be listed by name on a husband's or father's card.

GREENVILLE, S.C.--The president of Bob Jones University says that he wants to shed the school's fundamentalist label because the term has been equated with terrorist in the minds of many people since Sept. 11. Bob Jones III has suggested using the word "preservationist" to describe Christians with a fierce belief in the Bible's literal, inerrant truth.

Prosecutors are pursuing charges of religious hate crimes against a self-styled Muslim fundamentalist suspected of attacking statues of the Virgin Mary at Roman Catholic churches in Los Angeles and Culver City. Emad Ibrahim Saad, 35, of Los Angeles is accused of decapitating the Virgin Mary statue at St.

Muslims believe the Koran is the literal word of God, a divine revelation received by the prophet Muhammad centuries ago. In Iraq, the faithful can read those sacred words written in the blood of their president, Saddam Hussein. That, at least, is what officials say: that over a period of three years the president donated 50 pints of blood that was mixed with preservatives and used to pen the more than 600 pages of the holy book.

September 20, 2001 | TYLER MARSHALL and JOHN DANISZEWSKI, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

With Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic leaders calling for mass demonstrations and a general strike, President Pervez Musharraf appealed to his people Wednesday to choose wisdom over emotion and back his decision to help the United States in its war against terrorism. "When the national interest is at stake, you have to think wisely and act prudently," he said in a nationally televised address. "It is a time to show prudence. We have to save ourselves."

A Utah polygamist who all but dared prosecutors to arrest him was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony bigamy charges, while his five wives and some of his 30 children wept in the courtroom. Tom Green, 53, also was ordered to pay $78,000 to the state in restitution for welfare payments to his 25 children who are younger than 18. The case was the first prosecution of a polygamist in Utah in 50 years and has focused an uncommon spotlight on plural marriage in the state.

Almost nobody agrees with Hugh Ross. During his university talks, Ross--both astronomer and evangelical minister--often comes under friendly fire from Christian fundamentalist students. They want to shoot down his scientific approach to faith. Ross, president of Reasons to Believe, a Christian think tank in Glendora, believes that creationism should never be taught in public schools. "There's no science or Scripture to back it up," he says.

March 20, 2000 | AUSAF ALI, Ausaf Ali, a former professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of Karachi, is the author of "Broader Dimensions of the Ideology of Pakistan" (Royal Book Co., Karachi, 1988)

It has been well said that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. I offer Pakistan as a case in point. In its 52 years of history, Pakistan--created on Aug. 14, 1947, out of British India, which became independent a day later--has been placed under military rule after the overthrow of the civilian government by the Pakistani army in 1958, 1977 and 1999. Even during civilian rule, the army has called the shots from behind the elected leaders of Pakistan.